Ranting About Biking In the City and BART

Regarding BART:
> A bike-friendly BART car is in the works (haven’t seen one for myself yet, though)
> Why exactly can’t we take bikes on escalators? Whoever made that rule- have they ever carried their bike up 100 steps, each day?

My least favorite moments on my work commute – because if I can’t rant here, where can I rant?!
– Hipster girl who sped past me at a stoplight as I was starting off, nearly hitting me. On a fixie.
– Cars that race in front of you on a green light, so you have to fall in behind them, then they screech to a halt at the next red, while you cycle up past them. Why do cars race to the next light? I’ll never understand.
– Those big black limo-van things hog the lane and swerve into the bike lane. Each one of them.
– Pedestrians who step into the street while checking traffic. Check traffic, then step into the street! Key intersections: Embarcadero & Market, and Bay & Embarcadero, Sansome & California. Also, I ahve to say pedestrians are so focused on cars they miss cyclists.

On a good note:
– Buses and shuttles have been very courteous to me, on my routes (EmeryGoRound, the 10-Townsend).
– It’s been gorgeous out in the morning and afternoon
– Cycling in SF is so fast- everything is so close together
– It feels like there’s been more people out on bikes, doing errands and stuff. Bike racks seem really full
– Most bars/restaurants/public places I’ve been at, if I ask if they have a place for bikes, they usually do! It’s this neat kind of underground chivalry.

6 Comments so far

Cars that race in front of you on a green light, so you have to fall in behind them, then they screech to a halt at the next red, while you cycle up past them.

Why do bicycles force themselves in front of cars at stoplights, so the cars have to crawl at a snail’s pace behind them until the adjacent lane empties so they can move around them? Just because a car moves faster than a bicycle doesn’t mean they’re “racing”.

Serafina, from my perspective, it’s not a situation of one-upmanship, but visibility. Cars, especially ones that are going to take a right at the next light, really infuriate me. Cars sometimes move faster than bikes, but in SF, it’s pretty rare to find a street or block, or route, where a car is faster.

If a car’s going to turn right at the next light, wouldn’t you want them to get to the intersection way before you, so they can turn without you being in the way? A car can’t turn right on red if a biker is sitting right there blocking their path.

Just seems really ridiculous to complain about not getting to be in front of a vehicle that obviously moves faster than you.

As a motorcyclist, I’m well aware of the issue of visibility. I’m also aware of the need to be able to maneuver and get out of the way … which is why I have an engine on my 2-wheeler. ;)

Well, the times that I get annoyed are when the car is not going faster than me. When they have to stop at the corner to check for traffic, and end up dawdling there- it’s like, why didn’t you just go the normal rate instead of some odd one-upmanship (and a perception that cars go faster- which- in my earlier comment, in SF they don’t on most streets).

The number one reason and it’s a biggie, escalator failure. If the escalator fails or some idiot runs or jumps at the bottom (causing the escalator to stop), the bicyclist and bicycle can fall.

Also a bicyclist and the bicycle impede traffic flow on the escalator. Not to mention that every so often, there are bicyclists who can’t maintain control of the bicycles on up-going escalator, and slides into the people behind them.

I live on Scott, between Fell and Oak – part of the path well known to cyclists as “The Wiggle”. My main problem is that cyclists decide it’s okay to take a shortcut during a red light, navigating northbound on Scott in the southbound lane while westbound drivers (like myself) are turning into that very lane (onto Scott from Fell.) Some cyclists have had the audacity to mouth off at me after nearly avoiding a collision. It’s people like them that give cyclists a bad rep…